Add your own twists to these cookie recipes
BY LISA FEDOROWICZ lfedorowicz@suntimes.com February 22, 2012 10:44AM
Updated: March 23, 2012 8:03AM
Sometimes I obsess. I obsess about cookies. But it’s not what you think. I don’t obsess about eating them. I obsess over whether I can put a personal spin on a recipe to make it more of my own.
Krystina Castella seems to share my obsession, and has developed a book around hers: Crazy About Cookies (Sterling, $5). And boy is she.
The book contains more than 350 cookie ideas — as she calls them — for you to either re-create or “use as a springboard for coming up with concepts for your own personalized cookies.”
To help encourage readers to play with their dough, Castella includes variations after many of the recipes. For instance, if you’ve already made the brownie cookies, why not try making marshmallow walnut brownie cookies or toffee brownie cookies or .... You get the point.
After re-creating several recipes, I found myself already thinking about ways I would make them differently.
One issue with the book, though, is that I was sent on a bit of a hunt — searching the index — to find baking instructions for the shortbread butter cookie, which I had planned to use in a no-bake recipe, as instructed. It would’ve made more sense to put the baking instructions for a standalone cookie after the ingredients at the back of the book, rather than have it as a variation listed somewhere in the book. But I survived, and so did the cookies.
In addition to the recipes, the book has templates to dabble with cookie designs and provides information on decorating techniques, how to store cookies, and more.
So the next time you bake cookies, don’t just follow the recipe. Try putting your personal touch on it.
